Category: writing prompts

As you may have heard, we haven’t been able to produce the 2019 edition of Next Year’s News (formerly known as The Date-A-Base Book). Unfortunately, we don’t have the funds to do it. Producing a research-intensive book like this takes several months of full-time work. And that means we need to sell enough copies to cover the cost of our time in producing it. The 2017 and 2018 editions did not cover their costs. So we’ve had to switch our attention to other projects that generate an income.

We know that many of you were dismayed when we announced the series was ending. We were dismayed too. We know that some of you had come to rely on it, and used it to generate your own income. But, sadly, the books were losing us a lot of money.

But there is another way. We’re going to make one final, last-ditch attempt to save the series. And this is where we need your help.

We’re going to try and sell as many copies of the current 2018 edition as we possibly can, and see if we can raise the funds that way instead.

In order to save the series, we need to sell an absolute minimum of 1,200 copies. So far, we’ve sold just 130 – but at least we’re past the 10% mark.

We need your help to get a big word-of-mouth campaign going, and really get those sales flooding in.

Please will you help us spread the word? Let’s see if we can reach our target of 1,200 copies and save the series.

If you know anyone who would benefit from a copy of Next Year’s News 2018, please will you either buy them a copy or send them to www.ideas4writers.co.uk/2018 so they can get one for themselves?

A note about printed copies:
As we only sold 30 printed copies of the 2017 edition, the 2018 edition is only available electronically (as a PDF file). But the PDF file is printable, so you could make your own printed copy. Or you should be able to take the file to any high street print shop and ask them to make you a spiral-bound copy with card covers.

Here are just a few of the ways in which people are using the book. Do you know anyone who works in any of these industries?

TV/radio/production companies use it to as a source of ideas for shows about upcoming historic anniversaries. They also use it as a source of ideas for features and snippets to include within other shows.

News websites, newspapers and magazines use it for their “on this day in history” features.

Writers and journalists use it for ideas for newspaper and magazine articles that tie in with upcoming anniversaries. This is a fairly untapped market, as very few people are doing it. Yet the articles are reasonably easy to research and write – and there are thousands of ideas for them in each book.

Novelists and filmmakers use it as a source of ideas, and also for historically accurate background details and sub-plots.

Museums use it for exhibition ideas.

Historians use it as a source of ideas for their books, articles and lectures.

And other people are using it in all sorts of interesting ways.

Can you think of anyone who could benefit – and potentially make money – from their copy?

We are ready and willing to begin work on Next Year’s News 2019, just as soon as we sell enough copies of the 2018 edition to cover the cost of producing it.

We will produce a half-length version within three months of starting work on it, and the full version within five months. If we sell enough copies of the 2019 edition, we will go straight on to produce the 2020 edition, aiming to have it finished by October 2018, and then the 2021 edition, aiming for a spring 2019 release.

But all of this depends on us selling enough copies of the current 2018 edition. If we don’t reach our target, then we will have no choice but to end the series, with the current edition being the last.

Once again, we urge you to help spread the word and/or buy extra copies of the 2018 edition for people you know. Let’s see if we can save this series, and maybe even give it a whole new lease of life. It would be such a shame to lose it.

Here’s the next book in our rebranded series of ideas and story prompts for writers.

All of the ideas have been edited and updated;
there’s a lovely new cover;
the Kindle price has been slashed to just 2.99;
and it’s available in paperback for the first time too!

It’s only available from Amazon, and to comply with their exclusivity requirements, we will no longer be selling it on the ideas4writers website.

Here’s the new description:

Write thrillers your readers will never forget!

No more ponderous, over-used plots; clichéd, one-dimensional characters; and stories that lack imagination and depth. Your plots will be epic, compelling and fresh; your heroes and villains will be complex and memorable; and your stories will blow your readers away.

Includes:

The Easy Way to Write Thrillers

The Formula that Works Every Time

The Best Heroes and Villains for your Stories

How to Thrill and Scare your Readers

How to get your Hero out of Trouble – in any situation

How to use the Different Types of Deadline

How to Increase the Drama to nail-biting levels

And much more

Plus you’ll get 40 great scene and storyline ideas you can use immediately or adapt as you wish

Like this:

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in September 2017 for you to write about and make money from. The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time to find markets, and research and write your articles.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

The listing below is a small sample of the entries for September from The Date-A-Base Book 2017. There are 328 anniversaries for September in the book (more than six times more than listed here). The book covers the whole of 2017 from January to December and features more than 4,000 anniversaries in total.

If you need to work further ahead, Next Year’s News 2018 (the new name for the Date-A-Base Book series) is also available!

Just one published article should cover the cost of your copy many times over – and the book also explains how to get your anniversary articles and features published in newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, and on paid sites online.

400 years ago (25 Sep 1617)
Death of Go-Yozei, Emperor of Japan (1586-1611).

300 years ago (24 Sep 1717)
Birth of Horace Walpole, 4th Earl of Orford, British novelist and politician. Son of Prime Minister Robert Walpole. Known for The Castle of Otranto – regarded as the first Gothic novel. He built Strawberry Hill House in Twickenham, London, which initiated the revival of the Gothic style in British architecture. He was also a prolific letter writer, and they are of significant political and social interest.

250 years ago (4 Sep 1767)
Death of Charles Townshend, British politician. Chancellor of the Exchequer (1766-67) whose taxation of imports into the British colonies in North America eventually led to the American Revolution.

200 years ago (5 Sep 1817)
Birth of Aleksey Konstantinovich Tolstoy, Count Tolstoy, important Russian poet, novelist and playwright. (Not to be confused with Leo Tolstoy – his second cousin.)

150 years ago (4 Sep 1867)
Sheffield Wednesday Football Club was founded in the UK.

150 years ago (21 Sep 1867)
Scottish surgeon Joseph Lister’s ground-breaking paper On the Antiseptic Principle in the Practice of Surgery was published in the medical journal The Lancet. It documented his successful use of carbolic acid (phenol) to sterilise operating theatres, dressings, wounds, surgeons’ gloves and surgical instruments, significantly reducing the rate of infection.

150 years ago (21 Sep 1867)
Birth of Henry L. Stimson, U.S. Secretary of War (1911-13, 1940-45), Governor-General of the Philippines (1927-29), Secretary of State (1929-33).

125 years ago (6 Sep 1892)
Birth of Sir Edward Appleton, British physicist and educator. Winner of the 1947 Nobel Prize for Physics for discovering the Appleton layer of the ionosphere, which reflects radio waves and is useful in communication.

125 years ago (8 Sep 1892)
The original version of the USA’s Pledge of Allegiance was first published in the children’s magazine The Youth’s Companion. It was written by Baptist minister Francis Bellamy. (The current version dates from 1954.)

100 years ago (11 Sep 1917)
Birth of Ferdinand Marcos, President of the Philippines (1965-86). Known for his authoritarian regime which was criticised for its corruption and the suppression of democracy.

100 years ago (27 Sep 1917)
Death of Edgar Degas, French Impressionist artist and sculptor.

90 years ago (7 Sep 1927)
American inventor Philo Farnsworth, aged 21, demonstrated the world’s first fully electronic television system in San Francisco, California. (He worked on a farm as a boy – the idea of scanning an image as a series of lines came from ploughing fields.)

90 years ago (18 Sep 1927)
The birth of CBS. The United Independent Broadcasters radio network (established in January 1927) was rescued by the Columbia Phonograph Company and renamed Columbia Phonographic Broadcasting System. The name was soon shortened to Columbia Broadcasting System (CBS).

75 years ago (3 Sep 1942)
World War II: Jewish uprising in the Lakhva Ghetto, Belarus. Thought to be the first ghetto uprising of the war.

75 years ago (4 Sep 1942)
World War II: Compulsory Work Service was introduced in France. All able-bodied men aged 18 – 50 and single women aged 21 – 35 were required to make themselves available to work in Germany. The Germans would release 1 French prisoner-of-war for every 3 French workers who went to Germany.

75 years ago (9 Sep 1942)
World War II: a Japanese seaplane dropped incendiaries on Wheeler Ridge, Oregon, USA in a (failed) attempt to start forest fires. This was the first time an enemy aircraft bombed the U.S. mainland.

75 years ago (12 Sep 1942)
World War II: the Laconia Incident. The British troopship Laconia was hit by a German torpedo and sank off the coast of West Africa, killing around 1,400 men. This had far-reaching consequences as the ship was carrying 1,500 Italian prisoners-of-war. When the Germans realised this they launched a rescue mission, but were then bombed by the Americans, despite displaying the Red Cross flag.

75 years ago (19 Sep 1942)
Death of Condé Montrose Nast, American magazine publisher (Vogue, Vanity Fair, The New Yorker and more).

70 years ago (18 Sep 1947)
The U.S. National Security Council and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) were established, the Department of Defense began operating, and the U.S. Air Force was established as a separate branch of the military.

65 years ago (6 Sep 1952)
Farnborough Air Show crash, Hampshire, UK. A de Havilland fighter jet broke apart and fell into the crowd, killing 31 people. Stringent safety measures were introduced to ensure this could never happen again.

65 years ago (6 Sep 1952)
The Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) launched its first television broadcasts, in Montreal.

60 years ago (4 Sep 1957)
Little Rock Crisis, Arkansas, USA. Nine black students enrolled at Little Rock Central High School. On 23rd September they were forced to withdraw because white mobs prevented them from entering. On 25th September U.S. President Dwight D. Eisenhower sent 300 National Guards to the school to enforce desegregation, which allowed the students to return. (In September 1958 the four high schools in the district closed for a year, preventing both black and white students from attending. The intention was that the buildings would be leased to private schools, side-stepping the ruling that public schools must be integrated. However, the schools remained closed for the full year – known as the ‘lost year’.)

60 years ago (9 Sep 1957)
The Civil Rights Act of 1957 was enacted in the USA. It was the first civil rights bill to pass Congress since the Reconstruction era in 1875. The Act aimed to remove discrimination against non-white voters and to integrate public schools, but it proved difficult to enforce. (This led to the Civil Rights Act of 1960, which aimed to address the 1957 Act’s shortcomings.)

60 years ago (12 Sep 1957)
The North American Aerospace Defense Command (NORAD) was established.

50 years ago (1 Sep 1967)
Death of Siegfried Sassoon, British poet, writer and soldier. One of the leading poets of WWI. Particularly known for his anti-war poetry and autobiographical works.

50 years ago (20 Sep 1967)
The British ocean liner Queen Elizabeth 2 (better known as the QE2) was launched. (It was retired from active service in November 2008. There are plans to turn it into a luxury hotel.)

50 years ago (29 Sep 1967)
The first episode of the science fiction TV series Captain Scarlet and the Mysterons was broadcast on ITV in the UK. Created by Gerry and Sylvia Anderson, it used the same Supermarionation system of puppetry and scale models as their earlier series Thunderbirds.

50 years ago (30 Sep 1967)
The BBC reorganised its radio network: BBC Radio 1 was launched. The BBC Light Programme became BBC Radio 2. The BBC Third Programme and BBC Music Programme were merged and became BBC Radio 3. The BBC Home Service became BBC Radio 4.

40 years ago (5 Sep 1977)
NASA launched its Voyager 1 spacecraft (2 weeks after Voyager 2) on a mission to study the outer Solar System. On 18th September it sent back the first-ever photograph of the Earth and Moon together in a single image. In August 2012 it became the first spacecraft to enter interstellar space (disputed). It is still operating and in communication with Earth.

40 years ago (12 Sep 1977)
Death of Steve Biko, South African anti-apartheid activist. Founder of the Black Consciousness Movement. (He was arrested at a police roadblock on 18th August and died from injuries received while in police custody, leading to an international outcry. He became a martyr for South African black nationalism.)

30 years ago (26 Sep 1987)
The first episode of the science fiction television series Star Trek: The Next Generation was broadcast in the USA. (UK: 26th September 1990.)

25 years ago (7 Sep 1992)
The radio station Classic FM began broadcasting in the UK.

25 years ago (12 Sep 1992)
Death of Anthony Perkins, American stage and film actor and singer. Best known for his role as Norman Bates in the Hitchcock thriller Psycho.

25 years ago (16 Sep 1992)
Black Wednesday sterling crisis. Britain crashed out of the European Exchange Rate Mechanism (ERM), raised interest rates from 10% to 15%, and spent billions of pounds buying up sterling that was being frantically disposed of on international financial markets.

20 years ago (5 Sep 1997)
Death of Mother Teresa of Calcutta, Macedonian-born/Albanian Indian nun and humanitarian. Founder of the Missionaries of Charity. Winner of the 1979 Nobel Peace Prize. Beatified October 2003.

20 years ago (5 Sep 1997)
Death of Georg Solti, Hungarian-born British conductor.

20 years ago (11 Sep 1997)
In a referendum the people of Scotland voted to establish their own Parliament. (Opened 1st July 1999).

20 years ago (18 Sep 1997)
In a referendum the people of Wales voted to create the National Assembly for Wales, with devolved powers from Westminster. (Opened May 1999.)

20 years ago (19 Sep 1997)
Southall train disaster, west London, UK. An Intercity 125 passenger train crashed into a freight train that was being shunted across the line, after the driver missed 2 signals to stop. A warning system on the train was broken and an automatic braking system had been disabled as the driver was not trained to use it. 6 people were killed and more than 150 injured.

20 years ago (29 Sep 1997)
BSE (mad cow disease): British scientists announced that they had established a link between BSE and the human brain disease vCJD.

20 years ago (29 Sep 1997)
Death of Roy Lichtenstein, American artist. One of the founders of the Pop Art movement.

10 years ago (3 Sep 2007)
Death of Jane Tomlinson, British charity campaigner who undertook a series of athletic fundraising challenges after being diagnosed with terminal cancer.

Here’s this month’s selection of What Ifs to help stimulate your writer’s brain. Let’s see what can you do with these! Some are deliberately vague or ambiguous so you can interpret them in different ways.

** NEW for 2017 ** We’ll be discussing these What Ifs in our Facebook group each day!We’ll post each day’s What If in the group first thing in the morning (UK time) and we’ll post our thoughts (i.e. Dave’s thoughts) in the early evening, including how we think you could best turn it a story. We hope you’ll join in too – just leave a comment under that day’s entry.
Our Facebook group is open to everyone. Just go to the group and click on the Join button.

The What Ifs for January and February, including Dave’s thoughts about them, are already in the group. Here are the ones we’ll be discussing during March:

1. you saw your name spelled out in the sky?

2. you had the magic touch?

3. you didn’t have any favourites?

4. you could only taste one flavour?

5. ghosts definitely existed and lived among us?

6. everyone owned at least one bomb?

7. you could only see the colour blue?

8. you owned your own museum?

9. you woke up to find you had a tattoo on your face?

10. your experience was not the same as everyone else’s?

11. your mileage varied?

12. you signed a petition but it had unforeseen consequences?

13. your local undertaker was a notorious crook?

14. you stuck rigidly to your principles?

15. your teaching methods were ridiculed?

16. your grandfather took you to a secret shed and revealed something astonishing to you? (He may be dead, which makes the story more interesting!)

17. you were regarded as an easy target?

18. you were determined to make the list of the top ten most famous people of this century?

19. you witnessed a crime that didn’t happen?

20. you advertised a service you had no ability to do?

21. humans had nine lives?

22. all advertising was banned?

23. you could only write well when you were in pain?

24. you knocked a cyclist off his bike but didn’t hang around to see if he was okay?

25. you were given a second chance?

26. people started dying and the only connection was that they had been reading one of your books when it happened?

27. your home was haunted by a ghost that could see into the future?

28. your child kept inventing things?

29. you felt compelled to investigate an unsolved crime – and then discovered that you had committed it?

30. you could have prevented or avoided the problem but you let it happen anyway?

31. you made more money from failing at things than you did from succeeding?

If you’d like to send in a What If for us to discuss in the Facebook group please email it to: mail@ideas4writers.co.uk or leave a comment in the group.

If you’ve come up with a really great What If that you’re planning to use in a story and you’d like our thoughts on it, but without anyone else seeing it, we can do that too! (There’s a small charge to cover our time – and a 50% discount for lifetime members – see below.) Email us at the address above for more details.

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers
and get all 40+ of our ebooks for just £49.95

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in August 2017 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time to find markets, and research and write your articles.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

The listing below is a small sample of the entries for August from The Date-A-Base Book 2017. There are 303 anniversaries for August in the book (more than six times more than listed here). The book covers the whole of 2017 from January to December and features more than 4,000 anniversaries in total.

If you need to work further ahead, Next Year’s News 2018 (the new name for the Date-A-Base Book series) is also available!

Just one published article should cover the cost of your copy many times over – and the book also explains how to get your anniversary articles and features published in newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, and on paid sites online.

300 years ago (22 Aug – 30 Oct 1717)
The Spanish conquest of Sardinia. This led to the War of the Quadruple Alliance (1718-20).

150 years ago (3 Aug 1867)
Birth of Stanley Baldwin, British Prime Minister (1923-24, 1924-29, 1935-37). He led the government during the 1926 General Strike, the 1935 Ethiopian crisis and the 1936 abdication crisis. He is the only British Prime Minister to have served under 3 monarchs.

150 years ago (14 Aug 1867)
Birth of John Galsworthy, British novelist and playwright. Best known for The Forsyte Saga. Winner of the 1932 Nobel Prize for Literature.

150 years ago (25 Aug 1867)
Death of Michael Faraday, British physicist and chemist. Noted for his many contributions to the fields of electromagnetism and electrochemistry, especially electromagnetic induction, diamagnetism and electrolysis.

150 years ago (31 Aug 1867)
Death of Charles Baudelaire, important French poet, essayist, literary and art critic, and translator of the works of Edgar Allan Poe. Best known for his poetry collection Les Fleurs du mal (The Flowers of Evil).

125 years ago (4 Aug 1892)
The father and step-mother of Lizzie Borden were found murdered at their home in Fall River, Massachusetts, USA. Lizzie was accused of killing them with an axe, but was later acquitted. Police said they were not looking for anyone else in connection with the crime, and Lizzie was ostracised for the rest of her life. It was one of the most sensational murder cases of that period, and speculation continues to this day. The story has been recounted in numerous books, films, TV shows, plays, songs, and a popular skipping rhyme.

125 years ago (24 Aug 1892)
Goodison Park opened in Liverpool, UK. It was one of the world’s first purpose-built football (soccer) stadiums, and is the home of Everton FC.

100 years ago (6 Aug 1917)
Birth of Robert Mitchum, American film actor. Best known for his roles as a gritty anti-hero.

100 years ago (18 Aug 1917)
Great Thessaloniki Fire, Greece. Two-thirds of Greece’s second-largest city was destroyed by fire. 72,000 people were left homeless. (Cause: a spark from an unattended kitchen fire ignited a pile of straw. The resulting fire swept through the city, fanned by strong wind.)

100 years ago (18 Aug 1917)
Birth of Caspar Weinberger, U.S. Secretary of Defense (1981-87) and businessman. He resigned over his involvement in the Iran-Contra scandal, but was pardoned shortly before his trial was due to begin. He later became chairman of Forbes magazine.

80 years ago (2 Aug 1937)
The Marijuana Tax Act was passed in the USA. It was a significant step towards the criminalisation of cannabis. (It came into effect on 1st October. It was repealed and replaced by the Controlled Substances Act in 1970.)

80 years ago (13 Aug – 26 Nov 1937)
Second Sino-Japanese War – the Battle of Shanghai (China). Japanese victory. One of the largest and bloodiest battles of the war.

80 years ago (28 Aug 1937)
The Toyota Motor Corporation was founded as an independent company in Japan. (It began in 1933 as part of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works.)

75 years ago (7 Aug 1942 – 9 Feb 1943)
World War II – the Battle of Guadalcanal (Solomon Islands). The Allies’ first major offensive in the Pacific. Strategic Allied victory.

75 years ago (9 Aug 1942)
Mahatma Gandhi launched the Quit India Movement after being arrested by British forces in Bombay.

75 years ago (11 Aug 1942)
Austrian-born American actress Hedy Lamarr and American composer George Antheil were granted a U.S. patent for their frequency-hopping spread spectrum communication system. They developed the system as part of the U.S. war effort – it prevented radio-controlled torpedoes from being jammed by the enemy. The system was later adopted as the basis for wireless phones and Wi-Fi computer networking.

75 years ago (12 Aug 1942)
World War II – the Second Moscow Conference. British Prime Minister Winston Churchill met with Soviet leader Joseph Stalin and U.S. envoy W. Averell Harriman to discuss war strategy, plan the North Africa Campaign, and discuss opening a new front in northern France.

75 years ago (17 Aug 1942)
World War II: the first US-only bombing raid in Europe. The U.S. Eighth Air Force attacked marshalling yards at Rouen/Sotteville in Normandy, France. Sam Junkin became the first U.S. pilot to shoot down a German fighter plane.

75 years ago (23 Aug 1942 – 2 Feb 1943)
World War II – the Battle of Stalingrad (Soviet Union). The turning point in the war in Europe. Regarded as the largest and bloodiest battle in the history of warfare, and one that the Germans never recovered from. Decisive Soviet victory.

70 years ago (7 Aug 1947)
Norwegian adventurer Thor Heyerdahl’s raft Kon-Tiki reached Raroia, Tuamotu Islands, French Polynesia after a 101-day journey across the Pacific from South America. This demonstrated that people from pre-Columbian South America could have made the journey and settled there.

70 years ago (14 Aug 1947)
Pakistan gained its independence from the UK. Muhammad Ali Jinnah was its first Governor-General. (Pakistan and India both officially became independent at midnight on 15th August, but Pakistan held its independence ceremony 30 minutes early, on 14th, and now celebrates 14th August as its independence day.)

70 years ago (15 Aug 1947)
India gained its independence from the UK.

65 years ago (15 Aug 1952)
Lynmouth flood, Devon, UK. 34 people were killed and buildings and bridges devastated as a flood swept through the village.

60 years ago (5 Aug 1957)
The first episode of the dance show American Bandstand was broadcast on ABC TV in the USA. (It began as a local TV show called Bandstand in Philadelphia in 1952.)

60 years ago (31 Aug 1957)
The Federation of Malaya (now Malaysia) gained its independence from the UK.

50 years ago (9 Aug 1967)
Death of Joe Orton, British playwright. Known for his outrageous farces and black comedies. Best known for Entertaining Mr. Sloane, Loot and What the Butler Saw. (Murder-suicide by his lover.)

50 years ago (14 Aug 1967)
The Marine, Etc. Broadcasting Offences Act came into effect in the UK. It banned radio and television broadcasts being made into Britain from outside its territory, including airspace and bodies of water. It effectively made offshore pirate radio stations illegal, as well as outlawing pirate TV stations and aircraft-based broadcasts that were being planned.

50 years ago (27 Aug 1967)
Death of Brian Epstein, British music entrepreneur. Best known as the manager of the Beatles. (Accidental overdose of sleeping pills.)

40 years ago (15 Aug 1977)
The ‘Wow! Signal’ was detected by American astronomer Jerry R. Ehman while he was working on a SETI project using the Big Ear radio telescope at Ohio State University. The 72-second strong narrowband signal appeared to come from the M55 globular cluster in the constellation Sagittarius, but it has not been detected since.

40 years ago (20 Aug 1977)
NASA launched its Voyager 2 spacecraft on a mission to study the outer solar system and (eventually) interstellar space. It is the only spacecraft to have visited Uranus and Neptune. (It also visited Jupiter and Saturn.) It remains operational and in communication with Earth. Both Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 carry a gold-plated audio-visual disc featuring photos and sounds from Earth as well as scientific information.

40 years ago (23 Aug 1977)
The first VHS video recorder was released in the USA – the RCA VBT200. (The first VHS video recorder in the UK was the Victor HR-3300, released in 1978 by JVC. That model had been on sale in Japan since October 1976.)

30 years ago (1 Aug 1987)
The entertainment television network MTV Europe was launched. The first music video it played was Money for Nothing by Dire Straits.

30 years ago (15 Aug 1987)
Corporal punishment was banned in British state schools.

30 years ago (19 Aug 1987)
Hungerford Massacre, Berkshire, UK. Michael Ryan went on a shooting rampage around the town, killing 16 people (including his mother) before committing suicide.

25 years ago (12 Aug 1992)
Death of John Cage, American avant-garde composer.

25 years ago (20 Aug 1992)
Britain’s Daily Mirror newspaper published compromising photographs of the Duchess of York (Sarah Ferguson) on holiday in France with her ‘financial adviser’ John Bryan, who could be seen sucking her toes while she was topless.

25 years ago (24 Aug 1992)
Hurricane Andrew hit Florida, USA, causing a record $26.5 billion (£17 billion) worth of damage (surpassed by Hurricane Katrina in 2005). The Bahamas and Louisiana were also hit. 65 people were killed.

25 years ago (30 Aug 1992)
Astronomers David Jewitt and Jane Luu discovered the first Kuiper belt object after 5 years of searching. (The Kuiper belt is a region of the solar system beyond the orbit of Neptune and includes the dwarf planet Pluto. More than 100,000 Kuiper belt objects with a diameter larger than 62 miles (100 km) are believed to exist. Over 1,000 have been discovered so far.)

25 years ago (30 Aug 1992)
German racing driver Michael Schumacher won the Belgian Grand Prix – the first of his record 91 Formula One wins.

20 years ago (13 Aug 1997)
The first episode of the adult animated comedy series South Park was broadcast on Comedy Central in the USA.

20 years ago (26 Aug 1997)
The first DVD-Video discs went on sale in the USA.

20 years ago (29 Aug 1997)
Netflix began operating as an online DVD rental service. It switched to a subscription-based service in 1999 and later added unlimited video streaming and original programming.

20 years ago (31 Aug 1997)
Death of Diana, Princess of Wales, her companion Dodi Fayed, and their driver, in a car crash in the Place de l’Alma underpass in Paris, France.

Like this:

Here’s this month’s selection of What Ifs to help stimulate your writer’s brain. Let’s see what can you do with these! Some are deliberately vague or ambiguous so you can interpret them in different ways.

** NEW for 2017 ** We’ll be discussing these What Ifs in our Facebook group each day!We’ll post each day’s What If in the group first thing in the morning (UK time) and we’ll post our thoughts (i.e. Dave’s thoughts) in the early evening, including how we think you could best turn it a story. We hope you’ll join in too – just leave a comment under that day’s entry.
Our Facebook group is open to everyone. Just go to the group and click on the Join button.

The What Ifs for January, including Dave’s thoughts about them, are already in the group. Here are the ones we’ll be discussing during February:

1. What if people of different religions were never allowed to mix?

2. What if people of different races were never allowed to mix?

3. What if gravity weakened… and then stopped?

4. What if you spent your whole life balanced on a ball?

5. What if you spent your whole life on stilts?

6. What if you were an island?

7. What if you were the black sheep of your family?

8. What if something you thought was inanimate was trying to kill you?

9. What if a typo had far-reaching consequences?

10. What if birds talked like humans?

11. What if schools were abolished?

12. What if you wanted to be alone but your family, friends or colleagues wouldn’t let you?

13. What if your version of the truth was different from other people’s?

14. What if rocks were alive?

15. What if you spent the day coming up with new words?

16. What if taxes were higher than wages?

17. What if you ignored the signs?

18. What if everyone was free?

19. What if you won the jackpot on the lottery even though you hadn’t bought a ticket?

20. What if everyone could see auras?

21. What if whenever anyone died we threw them on the fire and a living baby came out of the flames to take their place?

22. What if your dog trained you to do tricks?

23. What if the medicine you were taking to make you better was actually making you sicker?

24. What if you were out of time?

25. What if you took revenge in subtle ways?

26. What if you were not from Earth?

27. What if the legal system was so simple that anyone could understand it?

28. What if you always knew where everything was?

If you’d like to send in a What If for us to discuss in the Facebook group please email it to: mail@ideas4writers.co.uk or leave a comment in the group.

If you’ve come up with a really great What If that you’re planning to use in a story and you’d like our thoughts on it, but without anyone else seeing it, we can do that too. (There’s a small charge to cover our time – and a discount for lifetime members – see below.) Email us at the address above for more details.

Become a lifetime member of ideas4writers
and get all 40+ of our ebooks for just £49.95

Here are 50 newsworthy anniversaries coming up in July 2017 for you to write about (and make money from). The anniversaries are listed 6 months in advance to give you enough time to find markets, and research and write your articles.

We have painstakingly cross-checked every entry, but you are advised to check all facts again as part of your research. Please let us know of any errors you find.

The listing below is a small sample of the entries for July from The Date-A-Base Book 2017. There are 306 anniversaries for July in the book (more than six times more than listed here). The book covers the whole of 2017 from January to December and features more than 4,000 anniversaries in total.

If you need to work further ahead, Next Year’s News 2018 (the new name for the Date-A-Base Book series) is also available!

Just one published article should cover the cost of your copy many times over – and the book also explains how to get your anniversary articles and features published in newspapers and magazines, on radio and TV, and on paid sites online.

300 years ago (17 Jul 1717)
Handel’s Water Music was performed for the first time, on a barge on the River Thames in London. King George I sailed in the royal barge to hear the music, and was accompanied by many Londoners in their own boats.

250 years ago (11 Jul 1767)
Birth of John Quincy Adams, 6th President of the United States (1825-29).

200 years ago (12 Jul 1817)
Birth of Henry David Thoreau, American essayist, poet, philosopher and advocate of civil liberties. A leading transcendentalist. Best known for his book Walden (a record of his experiment in simple living) and for his essay Civil Disobedience.

200 years ago (18 Jul 1817)
Death of Jane Austen, British romantic novelist. One of the most widely read writers in English literature. She helped set the character of the modern novel. Her books include Sense and Sensibility, Pride and Prejudice, Mansfield Park, Emma, Northanger Abbey and Persuasion.

150 years ago (1 Jul 1867)
The Dominion of Canada was established when the British North America Act (also known as Constitution Act of 1867) came into effect. It was comprised of 4 provinces: Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario. (The event is now celebrated annually in Canada as Canada Day.)

150 years ago (5 Jul 1867)
Birth of A. E. Douglass, American astronomer and archaeologist. Founder of the field of dendrochronology (dating past events by analysing the ring growth patterns in trees). He also discovered a correlation between the sunspot cycle and tree rings.

150 years ago (24 Jul 1867)
Birth of E. F. Benson, British novelist, short story writer, biographer and memoirist. Best known for his novels featuring the characters Mapp and Lucia.

150 years ago (26 Jul 1867)
Death of Otto, first King of modern Greece (1832-62).

150 years ago (31 Jul 1867)
Birth of S. S. Kresge, American merchant who founded a chain of discount stores which later became Kmart.

125 years ago (18 Jul 1892)
Death of Thomas Cook, pioneering British travel agent. Founder of Thomas Cook & Son. Regarded as the inventor of modern tourism.

100 years ago (7 Jul 1917)
World War I: the Women’s Army Auxiliary Corps (WAAC) was founded in the UK. For the first time, women were able to enlist in the Army and serve alongside their male counterparts in France (in non-combat roles).

100 years ago (16 – 20 Jul 1917)
Russian Revolution – the July Days demonstrations, Petrograd. The Russian military attacked peaceful demonstrations by soldiers and industrial workers who were protesting against the Russian Provisional Government. Provisional Prime Minister Georgy Lvov resigned on 21st July and was succeeded by Alexander Kerensky (until 7th November when he was also overthrown in the October Revolution).

100 years ago (17 Jul 1917)
World War I: King George V changed the name of the British royal family from Saxe-Coburg and Gotha to Windsor (due to the anti-German sentiment in Britain ).

100 years ago (20 Jul 1917)
World War I: the first military draft lottery was held in the USA to select the order in which men would be called for service in WWI. 1,374,000 men were selected for examination, of whom 687,000 were called for immediate service. A further 10 million men were listed for future service.

100 years ago (24 Jul 1917)
World War I: Dutch-born exotic dancer Mata Hari went on trial in France, accused of spying for Germany. She was convicted and sentenced to death. (Executed: 15th October 1917.)

100 years ago (27 Jul 1917)
Death of Emil Theodor Kocher, pioneering Swiss surgeon. Winner of the 1909 Nobel Prize for Physiology or Medicine for his work on the thyroid gland. He also made several other important contributions to surgery, promoted aseptic surgery and scientific methods, reduced mortality from surgery, and invented new techniques, instruments and appliances.

100 years ago (31 Jul – 10 Nov 1917)
World War I – the Battle of Passchendaele (also known as the Third Battle of Ypres), Belgium. One of the greatest disasters of the war for both sides. Casualty figures were enormous, but the Allies were better able to bear the heavy losses as the war continued.

80 years ago (7 – 9 Jul 1937)
The Second Sino-Japanese War began with the Marco Polo Bridge Incident (the Battle of Lugou Bridge). Japanese troops made an assault on an important access point to the city of Beijing, China. This developed into a full-scale war, and then into the Pacific theatre of war during WWII, which continued until 1945.

75 years ago (1 – 27 Jul 1942)
World War II – the First Battle of El Alamein, Egypt. The Allies prevented the Germans and Italians from advancing into Egypt.

75 years ago (4 Jul 1942)
World War II: the Siege of Sevastopol ended. Axis forces captured the Crimean port city which they had first attacked in October 1941.

75 years ago (6 Jul 1942)
Jewish diarist Anne Frank and her family went into hiding in a secret annex at her father’s workplace in Amsterdam.

75 years ago (23 Jul 1942)
Holocaust: the Treblinka extermination camp in Poland began operating. (By October 1943 around 850,000 people had been killed there by gassing.)

75 years ago (31 Jul 1942)
The charity Oxfam was founded in the UK (as the Oxford Committee for Famine Relief).

70 years ago (2 Jul 1947)
The Roswell Incident, New Mexico, USA. A UFO apparently crash-landed on a ranch, and debris with strange markings and unusual properties was found. The U.S. Air Force claimed it was just a weather balloon. Some witnesses reported seeing the bodies of aliens, which the Air Force later said were mannequins.

70 years ago (9 Jul 1947)
Florence Blanchfield was appointed a lieutenant colonel in the U.S. Army, becoming the first woman in the USA to hold permanent military rank.

70 years ago (11 Jul 1947)
Exodus 1947. The ship SS Exodus carrying illegal Jewish emigrants from France set sail for the British Mandate of Palestine. Many of the passengers were Holocaust survivors. On arrival, the British packed them into 3 ships and deported them (on 19th July) back to France. On reaching Marseilles (on 2nd August), they refused to leave the ships and were taken to Germany where they were held in poor conditions in refugee camps. The event was widely covered in the media and caused Britain significant embarrassment. (About half the emigrants ended up in detainment camps in Cyprus when they tried to make the journey again. Britain recognised Israel in January 1949 and the detainees were transferred there.)

70 years ago (26 Jul 1947)
U.S. President Harry S. Truman signed the National Security Act into law. It led to the creation of the Department of Defense, the National Military Establishment, the National Security Council, the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and separated the Army Air Forces into its own service – the Department of the Air Force. (Effective from 18th September 1947.)

60 years ago (6 Jul 1957)
American tennis player Althea Gibson became the first black player to win a Wimbledon singles title.

60 years ago (6 Jul 1957)
John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time at a church hall in Liverpool, England, where 16-year-old Lennon was performing with his skiffle group, the Quarrymen. 15-year-old McCartney joined as a rhythm guitarist shortly afterwards, and the pair went on to form the Beatles.

60 years ago (12 Jul 1957)
The Sodium Reactor Experiment, the first nuclear reactor in the USA to generate electricity for the commercial power grid, began operating in Simi Valley, California. It produced power for Los Angeles. (It experienced a partial meltdown in July 1959. It was restarted in September 1960, and shut down in February 1964. Removal of the reactor was completed in 1981.)

60 years ago (29 Jul 1957)
The International Atomic Energy Agency was established. It promotes the peaceful use of nuclear energy.

50 years ago (1 Jul 1967)
The European Economic Community, the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Atomic Energy Community merged into a single organisation. Many people regard this event as the creation of the European Union.

50 years ago (1 Jul 1967)
BBC2 became the first TV channel in Europe to broadcast regularly in colour.

50 years ago (5 Jul 1967)
Israel annexed the Gaza Strip following the Six-Day War. (Israel officially withdrew from Gaza in September 2005, but as it continues to control the airspace and coastline it is still regarded as an occupying power by the UN.)

50 years ago (6 Jul 1967 – 15 Jan 1970)
Nigerian Civil War (also known as the Biafran War). Nigerian government forces invaded the breakaway Republic of Biafra which had seceded in May. Nigerian victory: Biafra was reintegrated into Nigeria.

50 years ago (8 Jul 1967)
Death of Vivien Leigh, award-winning Indian-born British stage and film actress (Gone with the Wind, A Streetcar Named Desire and more).

50 years ago (21 Jul 1967)
Death of Basil Rathbone, Tony Award-winning South African-born British stage, film and radio actor. Best known for his role as Sherlock Holmes.

50 years ago (27 Jul 1967)
The Criminal Justice Act 1967 received Royal Assent in England and Wales. It allowed majority verdicts for juries in criminal trials, removing the need for unanimous verdicts. (The first case in the UK to be decided by a majority verdict was in Brighton on 5th October 1967.)

50 years ago (27 Jul 1967)
The Sexual Offences Act received Royal Assent in England and Wales (but excluded the Merchant Navy and Armed Forces). It decriminalised homosexual acts in private between consenting males aged 21 or over.

40 years ago (1 Jul 1977)
British tennis player Virginia Wade won the ladies singles championship at Wimbledon. (She remains the last British woman to do so.)

30 years ago (29 Jul 1987)
British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher and French President François Mitterrand ratified the Treaty of Canterbury – the agreement to build the Channel Tunnel. (Construction began on 15th December.)

20 years ago (1 Jul 1997)
The sovereignty of Hong Kong was transferred from the UK to China.

20 years ago (9 Jul 1997)
The CEO of Apple Computer, Gil Amelio, was forced to resign following a boardroom coup led by Steve Jobs. The coup followed heavy financial losses and a slump in shares. (Jobs became interim CEO in September and began restructuring the company.)

20 years ago (20 Jul 1997)
The second IRA ceasefire in 3 years came into effect in Northern Ireland. There were sporadic outbreaks of violence afterwards, but the ceasefire lasted, leading to the signing of the Good Friday Agreement in May 1998.

10 years ago (1 Jul 2007)
Smoking was banned in all enclosed workplaces in England. Similar bans were already in place in Scotland (26th March 2006), Wales (2nd April 2007) and Northern Ireland (30th April 2007).

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Pages

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